As part of its continuing commitment to improve the care and outcome of both premature and full term infants requiring neonatal intensive care, the Division of Neonatology at the UCSD Medical Center is applying to join the NICHD Neonatal Research Network. The core neonatal faculty of UCSD provides clinical care, performs both clinical and applied research, and has an active training program in newborn medicine. The principle nursery is at the UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, a 40-bed regional care NICU with approximately 560 admissions of which approximately 82% of admissions are inborn. We have developed a consortium relationship with Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women (SMBHW), currently the largest delivery hospital in California, which admitted 1112infants in 1999. SMBHW has committed to hiring a full-time neonatal research nurse to facilitate their participation in the Research Network. Both neonatal units are members of the National and State Neonatal Databases which include the Vermont Oxford Network (VON) and the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC). UCSD and SMBHW have active maternal-fetal medicine programs with ongoing collaboration between the Perinatal and Neonatal programs. Our neonatal programs have significant experience in multicenter prospective randomized trials, and observational studies and are committed to the ongoing critical evaluation of all aspects of care provided to critically ill neonates. The UCSD School of Medicine is committed to the support of prospective clinical research and has unique expertise in pharmacokinetics, microbial pathogenesis, biochemical genetics and dysmorphology and teratology which would enhance the activity of the Neonatal Network. We offer a large unique, ethnically diverse population of both very low birthweight and near-term and term infants and an experienced and committed faculty for participation in prospective randomized clinical trials and enthusiasticallyseek membership participation in the Neonatal Research Network.